From skull to sculpture: A lesson in forensic art

Learning forensic sculpture

A class at the New York Academy of Art spent a
week under the guidance of Joe Mullins, a forensic artist from the National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children, sculpting facial reconstructions of 11
unidentified victims in New York, January 2015.

If you recognize any of the victims, please call 212-323-1201.

Credit: Natasha Tverdynin Racic

Identifying the unnamed

The class was the brainchild of Joe Mullins, center, who has
created hundreds of skull reconstructions and thousands of age-progression
images for long-missing children at the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children.

Mullins hopes the students will pursue forensic art
professionally in order to aid in the identification process for the more than
10,000 unidentified remains cases in the U.S.

Credit: Stefania Panepinto

Art, and science

Students used their skills in sculpture and their knowledge of
anatomy for the project, but they didn't use artistic license -- they aimed to
create a likeness as close as possible to how the victim would have appeared in
life.

Credit: Natasha Tverdynin Racic

Technology paves the way

Students worked with replicas of the skulls that were 3-D
printed by the New York Medical Examiner's Office, allowing the office to
maintain custody of the remains while the students could work on real cases.

Credit: Stefania Panepinto

Creating a likeness

Graduate student Stefania Panepinto re-created the face of a
woman who was found dead along the side of a road in Shelby, New York in 1983.

The woman was later identified through DNA analysis.

Credit: Stefania Panepinto

Letting the skull speak

Students used averages to determine tissue depth in some
portions of the facial re-construction, but they also let the skull itself
direct their work for facial aspects like placement of the cheekbone and angle
of the nose.

Credit: Stefania Panepinto

Sculpting a mystery

Graduate student Richard Comstock reconstructed the face of a man found shot to death in Queens in 2001.

Students had very little information about
their victim besides basic demographic information like age, race and gender.

Credit: Natasha Tverdynin Racic

"Lost Souls"

As faces started to emerge, students said they felt a strong connection to their victim and a responsibility to help them get their names back.

"I felt like I was resurrecting lost souls," one student said.

Credit: Natasha Tverdynin Racic

"Someone staring back"

"People ask me how I know when to stop -- I stop when I see someone staring back at me," Mullins said.